Novel concepts for gun crimes
THE KNEE-JERK response by some to Philly’s soaring murder rate is to demand More Laws.
Others respond by asking: Why don’t we enforce the 20,000 gun laws currently on the books across the nation?
The current buzz is about “straw buyers” and “straw sellers” and how to stop them. “Straw buyers” and “sellers” are people with clean records who buy guns legally, then pirouette to sell them – illegally. Those illegal guns create much of the chaos on our streets.
“The only way you can legally transfer a firearm in the state of Pennsylvania,” says attorney Jon Mirowitz, a recognized authority on gun laws, “is to go through a licensed dealer, and it’s been that way since the 1930s.”
Enforcement of that law should be mandatory. But that cries for common sense, which we know is rare as a game-show host’s sincerity.
I didn’t realize that about Pennsylvania.
October 17th, 2006 at 9:02 am
The Pennsylvania law being referenced only applies to handguns. Long guns are not subject to those regs.
The handgun transfer through a dealer accomplishes (1) a background check on the buyer (“licensing”) and (2) registration of the transfer with the state police (“registration”).
But this fact doesn’t seem to register to the Philadelphia handgun-ban crowd, who seem to be arguing for enactment of this already-existing law (i.e, “licensing and registration”).
October 17th, 2006 at 10:12 am
I was under the impression that the advent of “licensed dealers” only came about with the GCA ’68.
If PA has been requiring handgun transfers to go through licensed dealers since the 1930s, did they license them at the state level?
October 17th, 2006 at 10:17 am
K is correct that it only applies to pistols, though I think under PA’s definition of pistol that an SBR might qualify as well. Absent a dealer, the county sheriff can execute the state paperwork and PICS check for you as well. The “registration” issue was intended to be made illegal by the UFA, but the State Police and the Supreme Court decided that the law, which clearly forbids a registry of firearms, didn’t apply to the State Police database because it technically was a record of sale rather than a registry. I’ve been told that the legislature will soon remedy this.